The Taking
by allurement
Summary: “So. We have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash.” The caller’s confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money if he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he’ll pay a lot more than two billion yen.
1. Call 1: The Deadline

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** SasuSaku  
**Summary:** "So, we have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash." The caller's confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money. If he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he'll pay a lot more than two billion yen.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. The Husband © Dean Koontz.

_Courage is grace under pressure_  
– Ernest Hemmingway

* * *

**Call #1:** The Taking  
_How much do you love your wife?_

"You hear about what happened to Sabaku no Kankuro?"

"Who?"

"Kankuro. He's Gaara's brother."

"Sabaku no Gaara? Haven't heard of him either."

"Sure you have," Naruto said, swinging a towel over his shoulder. "He hangs around a lot at Ichiraku. He's practically as big of a legend as I am over there."

Ichiraku was a bar. That served ramen. _Ramen_. And alcohol.

"Dobe, I haven't been in Ichiraku for years."

"_Years?_ Are you serious? I thought you still dropped in sometimes."

Sasuke snorted. "So I've really been missed, huh?"

"Well, I admit, they didn't name a bar stool after you like they did me. What — did you find someplace better than Ichiraku's?"

"Remember coming to my wedding three years ago?" Sasuke asked.

"Sure. I remember you not serving ramen there."

"Yeah, well, I don't do bars anymore. I never did them in the first place, unlike you. I do marriage now."

"Can't you do marriage _and _bars?" Naruto said, head disappearing under a car hood.

"I told you," Sasuke said, getting irritated. "I never did bars to begin with."

"That's sad," Naruto said, shaking his head.

"No it isn't."

"It actually is, Sasuke. If you put a lion in the zoo for three years, even six years, he never forgets what freedom is like."

Wiping some sweat off his brow, Sasuke asked, "How would you know? You ever asked a lion?"

"Don't need to ask one. I _am_ a lion."

"… You are a hopeless idiot."

"And proud of it. I'm glad you and Sakura-chan are working out, though. Remember, I'll pound you if you don't treat her right," Naruto warned. "But I've got my freedom."

"Good for you. And what do you do with it?"

"Anything I want. Like, if I want ramen for dinner, I don't have to ask anyone what _she_ wants."

"She wouldn't get a choice either way.

"If I want to go down to Ichiraku for a few sakes, there's nobody to bitch at me."

"Sakura doesn't bitch."

"I can get drunken-pissed every night if I want, and nobody's gonna be calling to ask when I'm coming home."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, replacing his wrench for a screwdriver.

"Some chick comes on to me," Naruto said, "I'm free to rock and roll."

"So they're coming on to you all the time, eh?"

"Women are bold these days, Sasuke. They see what they want, they just _take _it."

"Naruto, the last time you got laid, Inuzuka Kiba thought he was going to be the prime minister of Japan."

"That wasn't so long ago."

"So, what happened to Kankuro?"

"Who?"

"Gaara's brother."

"Oh, yeah. An iguana bit off his nose."

"That's disgusting."

"Tell me about it."

The garage was quiet. Naruto and Sasuke finished working on the car they were supposed to repair and took a seat. Sasuke was vaguely proud of what was around him. It hadn't had the best start, but with a few risks and a lot of hard work, they had managed to make their business successful.

It was blistering hot that day, and while Sasuke felt slightly heated, he wasn't too bothered by it. Naruto, however, was sweating like a pig.

His handphone rang.

Sasuke unclipped it from his belt and flipped it open. The time — 11:43am — was displayed but no number came up on the screen.

"Uchiha Sasuke here."

"_Sasuke-kun, I love you_."

"Sakura?"

"_Whatever happens, I love you. Remember that, Sasuke-kun_," Sakura said on the other end.

She cried out in pain. A clatter and a crash were heard, suggesting a struggle.

Alarmed, Sasuke rose to his feet. "Sakura?"

He was so focused on listening to the background noise for any sound coming from Sakura that he didn't hear what the man who had taken hold of the phone was trying to tell him.

"_Sonofabitch_," Sakura said, and was silenced by a sharp crack, as though she'd been slapped.

The stranger on the phone said, "You hear me now, Uchiha?"

"Sakura? Where's Sakura."

"_Oi, if she gets up, punch her_," the stranger said, talking away from the phone to someone at his end of the line.

Sakura was with at least two men, one of whom had _hit_ her.

The stranger diverted his attention back to Sasuke. "_So, Uchiha. We have your wife_."

"Why?" Sasuke heard himself ask.

"_Why do you think, asshole?_"

Sasuke rummaged his brain for every possible reason as to why his wife had been kidnapped, each seeming less logical than the last choice.

"I'm just a mechanic."

"_So? We have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash_."

There was no way this was real. Sasuke made a mental calculation. Two _billion_ yen. That was roughly twenty million American dollars. Sasuke didn't have that kind of money simply lying around.

"You've made a mistake," Sasuke said. Naruto had gone off to the toilet; Sasuke was alone in a conversation with a man that had taken and hit his wife.

"_You heard me? I said, two billion_."

"You aren't listening to me. I'm a mechanic."

"_We know. You've got until midnight Wednesday. Sixty hours. We'll be in touch about the details_."

"This is bullshit," Sasuke said. "Where would I get two billion yen?"

"_You'll find a way_."

"It isn't possible," Sasuke insisted.

"_You want to hear her scream again?_"

"No. Don't."

"_Do you love her?_"

"Yes."

"_Really love her?_"

"Yes."

"_Well, if you do_," said the stranger, "_then you'll find a way_."

"There isn't a way you bone-headed—"

"_If you go to the police, we'll cut off her fingers one by one, and cauterise them as we go. We'll cut her tongue out. And her eyes. Then we'll leave her alone to die as fast or slow as she wants_."

Sasuke's mouth was dry. He couldn't think of any response to this.

The stranger continued on. "_And just so you know that we're serious… See that guy across the road?_"

Sasuke turned and saw a single pedestrian, a man taking an afternoon jog.

Before he could blink, a rifled fire shattered the stillness of the sunny day, and the pedestrian went down, shot in the head.

"_Wednesday, midnight_," said the man on the phone. "_Don't even try to fuck with us_."

* * *

**A/N:**

I can't write canon stories to save my life. So I resort to ripping off concepts from films and books and fusing them with Naruto characters. Le sigh.

Yes, Sasuke is OOC, because he is a _normal_ person here. He is not some ninja whose brother murdered his entire clan, he is not some detective who solves cases of dead people, he is not a rich snooty brat, he is not a sex-crazed maniac who gets high on sniffing flowers and bathing in honey, he is _normal_. Normal_normal_**normal**.

Eh hem. Yeah.

_Lessthanthree._


	2. Call 2: The Test

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** SasuSaku  
**Summary:** "So, we have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash." The caller's confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money. If he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he'll pay a lot more than two billion yen.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. The Husband © Dean Koontz.

_Courage is grace under pressure_  
– Ernest Hemmingway

* * *

**Call #2:** The Test  
_Congradulations, you passed_

Sasuke stood paralysed.

The killer had terminated the call, but Sasuke still held the phone to his ear. He held on to that small hope that as long as he didn't move, the violence might be undone and time rewound, recalling the bullet to the barrel.

Reason and triumph won over superstition and magical thinking.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Sasuke ran across the street to the fallen man. If he were merely wounded, something might be done to save him.

However, just one glance at the victim dispelled any hope that first aid might sustain him until the paramedics arrived. A significant portion of his skull was blown out.

Having no familiarity with violence, except the edited-analysed-and-defanged variety provided by television news, and with the cartoon violence in movies, Sasuke was rendered impotent by this horror. Shock immobilised him.

Things like this didn't happen to him. He was just a normal man, struggling to make it in the world. He was just a mechanic. He wasn't some wealthy business tycoon, wasn't a member of a secret organisation that had access to limitless amounts of money and he wasn't some sort of _ninja _who could easily find his wife and save her with tricks and moves that defied all laws of physics and logic.

Sasuke surveyed the area around him but found no gunman, nor a trace of one. The rifle could have been fired from any house, from any rooftop or window, or from behind a parked car. However, the noise it made hadn't brought anyone out from any of the beautiful houses. By some stroke of luck, Naruto had managed to secure them a place for their garage in a well-off neighbourhood, typically quiet, with huge houses that had equally huge and well-kept lawns, the whole package. In this type of neighbourhood, Sasuke reasoned, a gunshot could be perceived as a slammed door, dismissed even as it echoed. No one would suspect of any violent gun crimes in such a wealthy suburb.

Across the road, Naruto had returned from his bathroom break and was looking at Sasuke and the fallen man with a puzzled expression.

Sixty hours. Time on fire, minutes burning. Sasuke couldn't afford to let time turn into ashes while he was tied up with a police investigation. But he couldn't just load the man into a car and dump him into a river, especially not now Naruto had seen him, and he really didn't want to involve the blonde in this.

_If you go to the police, we'll cut her fingers off one by one…_

The kidnappers wouldn't hurt Sakura if Sasuke called the police to inform them about the shooting. He would have to do it to seem inconspicuous. Forbidden, however, was any mention of Sakura's kidnapping, or of the fact that the jogger had been murdered as an example to Sasuke.

They might have even put him into this predicament specifically to test his ability to keep his mouth shut at the moment he was in the most severe state if shock; the moment he was most likely to lose his self-control.

He opened his phone. The screen brightened and, after a brief moment of hesitation, Sasuke keyed in the numbers one, one and zero, and held the phone to his ear.

When the police operator answered on the fourth ring, Sasuke couldn't speak. But suddenly, the words blew out of him.

"A man's been shot. I'm dead. I mean, he's dead. He's been shot and he's dead."

* * *

Squad cards, CSI vans, and a morgue wagon were scattered along the street with the insouciance of those to whom parking regulations do not apply.

In front of his garage, Sasuke sat with his back against a client's car.

Twice in two hours, he had been questioned. Two detectives in civilian clothing had interviewed him the first time, only one on the second occasion. Sasuke thought he had acquitted himself very well. Yet they had not told him that he was free to go home.

Thus far, Naruto had been interviewed only once. But he had no wife in jeopardy; he had nothing to hide. Besides, Naruto had less talent for deception than did the average six-year-old, which would be evident to experienced interrogators.

Sasuke banged his head backwards on the car door. Two of his sixty hours were already gone.

He had already made three phone calls, the first to his home number. An answering machine had picked up. The logical part of him didn't expect anything else; her abductors wouldn't be stupid enough to hold her hostage in her own home.

Still, he was in denial because the situation had no sense. Kidnappers don't target the wives of men who have to worry about the price of bread and butter.

Maybe they had a plan they hadn't revealed to him yet. Maybe they wanted him to rob a bank to get the money?

One problem. No bank had two billion yen in cash on hand, in tellers' drawers, and probably not even in the vault.

After, he had tried Sakura's handphone, which had elicited no response as well.

Finally, he had called St. Minato's, the hospital where Sakura did her medical training to become a doctor. The receptionist, Shizune, had told her that Sakura had called in sick. A summer flu, she had explained. She was so disappointed.

"I better call her at home," Sasuke had said, but of course, he had already tried that.

He had spoken to Shizune more than an hour and a half ago, between conversations with detectives.

One of the homicide detectives — Nara Shikamaru — wore sandals, chinos, and a red-and-white Hawaiian shirt. However, whenever he would say something to the police or the other detectives, they would instantly listen with the utmost attention and follow his lead, despite his laid-back appearance.

The other — Lieutenant Hyuuga Neji — wore dress shoes, black slacks, and a pale blue shirt. He was tall, solid, and all business. But it wasn't his physical appearance that threw Sasuke off. The fact that Hyuuga Neji had made the title of lieutenant at his age – he couldn't have been much older than Sasuke — made him look even more intimidating to Sasuke than Nara Shikamaru, who, Sasuke knew, only dressed so casually and adopted such a relaxed demeanour to mislead suspects unfortunate enough to come under his scrutiny.

They had first interviewed Sasuke together. Later, Neji had returned alone, and repeated every question he and Shikamaru had asked before, perhaps anticipating contradictions between Sasuke's statements.

Ostensibly, Sasuke was a witness. To a detective, however, when no killer had been identified, every witness was also counted as a suspect.

But Sasuke had no reason to kill a stranger doing his afternoon exercise. Even if they were crazy enough to believe he did that, he'd have to have had an accomplice, the only logical one being Naruto, who clearly didn't seem to interest them.

Most likely, though they knew he'd had no role in the shooting, their instinct told them that he was concealing something.

Now, here came Neji again.

Sasuke rose to his feet, weary and impatient.

* * *

"I'm sorry for all this inconvenience, Uchiha-san. But I just have a couple more questions, and then you're free to go."

Following an unfortunate hesitation long enough to suggest calculation on Sasuke's part, he said, "I'm not complaining, Lieutenant. It could have just as easily have been me who was shot. I'm thankful to be alive."

Neji's eyes looked like those of a predatory bird. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, if it was a random shooting—"

"We don't know that it was," said Neji. "In fact, the evidence points to cold calculation. One shot, perfectly placed."

"Can't a crazy man with a gun be a skilled shooter?"

"Absolutely. But crazies usually want to rack up as big a score as possible. A psychopath with a rifled would have tried to shoot you too. This guy knew exactly who he wanted to kill."

After a moment's silence, Neji asked, "Were you ever in the army, Uchiha-san?"

His question threw Sasuke off. "What? No. I'm just a mechanic."

"I see."

They stood for a minute in silence. Neji stood in quiet contemplation, whilst Sasuke yearned to return to his house to decide upon the best course of action. He could practically hear the non-existent watch on his hand ticking the seconds away.

"Uchiha-san?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you tell the operator that you were dead?" Neji asked, eyes carefully surveying and scrutinising Sasuke's reaction.

"What?"

Neji took a carefully folded piece of paper from his pocket. "You said, and I quote: '_A man's been shot. I'm dead. I mean, he's dead. He's been shot and he's dead_.'"

"A slip of the tongue," Sasuke tried to reason. "In the confusion and the panic."

Neji continued to stare at him for a while, before saying, "Okay. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?"

For a moment, Sasuke wanted to tell him about Sakura and the kidnappers. Sure, they had threatened her, but if they didn't know about it, she'd be safe. It was his only option. If he didn't say anything he'd be alone and there was no way he could raise two billion yen on time by himself.

But what if Hyuuga Neji was working with Sakura's abductors? What if this private moment between them that couldn't be overheard by anyone else at the scene was the ultimate test of Sasuke's obedience?

It may have just been paranoia, but in light of recent events, Sasuke felt that it was well justified. He was half convinced that if he told Neji about Sakura's kidnapping, the other man would sigh and say, '_We're sorry, Uchiha-san. You disobeyed our instructions, so now we have to kill your wife_.'

"No, Lieutenant," Sasuke said.

Neji folded the piece of paper and re-pocketed it. "I see. Well, I gave you my business card," he reminded Sasuke.

"I have it."

"Call me if you remember anything you'd like to say."

"Of course."

* * *

"_You can breathe, Uchiha-san. Your wife is safe. You followed instructions_."

"Let me speak to her."

"_No_."

"I said, let me—"

The kidnapper hung up.

* * *

**A/N:**

Well, it's 4 minutes past midnight where I am, so Happy New Years everyone! Just wanted to get this out before 2008.

It's also the one year anniversary of me joing FFnet and posting my first fanfiction (which I accidently deleted -_bangs head_-).

**N.B:** In Japan, _one-one-zero_, or 110, is the number you dial when you want to call the police. It's basically what 911 is to Americans and Canadians. I actually had to look this up on Google. -_fails_-

Up to this point, I've been following the book very religiously. All conversation between the kidnapper and Sasuke in the first chapter have been taken from the book. However, from here on out, the plotline may differ and veer off dramatically, so fans of the book, I'm sorry in advance for butchering it.

My New Year's Resolution is to stop procrastinating and hanging around FFnet so much and study for my final exams next year. And to stop writing really long notes that no one reads.

_Lessthanthree._


	3. Call 3: The Homecoming

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** SasuSaku  
**Summary:** "So, we have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash." The caller's confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money. If he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he'll pay a lot more than two billion yen.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. The Husband © Dean Koontz.

_Courage is grace under pressure_  
– Ernest Hemmingway

* * *

**Call #3:** The Homecoming  
_One minute, and maybe never again_

As usual, Sasuke had begun the day by picking up Naruto at his apartment. Now he had to return him. Naruto had eagerly wanted to talk about the murder and the police, treating the incident like an interesting piece of gossip that had saved him from a boring day of work. Sasuke had to pretend to be as naïvely excited by the novelty of the experience as Naruto was, when in fact his mind remained occupied with thoughts of Sakura and with worry about what might come next.

Sasuke would never forgive himself if something had happened to her.

Fortunately, as usual, Naruto's conversation soon began to loop and turn and tangle like a ball of yarn unravelled by a kitten and he was soon talking about his plans with Aburame Shino to get their hair permed on Friday.

Sasuke repeatedly checked the rear-view and side mirrors. A black Cadillac SUV had constantly been following a few cars behind them for the whole journey. Perhaps the driver had hoped that Sasuke wouldn't notice him.

Sasuke accelerated to cross an intersection before the traffic light phased to red. The black car changed lanes, sped up and made it through with them.

"Have you ever eaten fat-free ramen?" Naruto asked.

"… Is there such a thing?"

"Of course. There's fat-free everything now. But seriously, don't try it. It's nasty." Naruto pulled a face.

They had just arrived at Naruto's apartment. Sasuke stopped by the curb, and the black SUV went past without even slowing down for a second. The side windows were tinted.

Sasuke never expected it to be that easy anyway.

Opening his door, before getting out of the car, Naruto asked, "Yo, Sasuke, you okay?"

"Hn."

"You look like you actually have a few emotions on you right now, ready to come out. You know, a few."

"I just saw a guy shot to death," Sasuke reminded him.

"Yeah! Wasn't that awesome? I guess I know who's gonna rule the bar at Ichiraku's tonight. You should come. Be a lion again, man."

"I'll pass."

Naruto pouted.

"Wind beneath my wings."

"… Just stop talking, you dumbass."

"Whoa, that's harsh," said Naruto, flinging his right hand over his heart, pretending to look hurt.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Go get wasted."

"Why yes, I do intend to get mildly polluted," assured Naruto. "Hey, I met this really hot girl the other night — Ino, I think her name was. She's gonna be at Ichiraku's later on. Bet you I can get her number before the day is over."

"I don't doubt it," Sasuke said drolly.

"Yeah well, see ya later. Tell Sakura-chan I'm still available when she realises you are asexual and was not meant for the fairer sex." With that, Naruto slammed the door and walked away, big and loyal and sweet and clueless.

Alone in his car at last, Sasuke let out a shaky sigh. Before, he had been impatient to be ride of Naruto and to get home. Now his stomach turned when he considered what might wait for him there.

What he most feared was finding blood.

* * *

"_You know Donald Duck, right?"_

_Sasuke opened his eyes slightly._

"_Hn."_

"_He doesn't wear any pants, right?"_

_Unsure of where the conversation was about to head, he grunted his ever-safe answer, "Hn."_

"_So then, haven't you ever wondered why whenever he steps out of the shower, he has a towel wrapped around his waist? I mean, isn't that just redundant?"_

_Sasuke did a double take._

"… _Sakura, stop analysing children's cartoons."_

_Sakura giggled and then paused. After a while, she turned back to him and asked, _"_Hey, Sasuke-kun, when's your brother coming back?"_

_Sasuke glanced at her._

"_He's out with some girl. If you're waiting for him, you might as well go back to your house, get some sleep and come back in the early morning."_

_Sakura winced._

"_Ouch, Sasuke. That hurt. What makes you think I only came around here to see your oh-so-good-looking brother? Why can't I visit my good friend Sasuke-kun, whom I've known since elementary school?"_

"… _Just shut up and go back to watching Disney."_

"_Aye aye, Sasuke-kun."_

_

* * *

_

The Cadillac SUV did not reappear, nor did any other vehicle take up pursuit. Sasuke thought he might have imagined the tail.

Their house was in an older, well-respected neighbourhood. The bungalow — pale-yellow clapboard, white trim, a cedar-shingle roof — stood behind a picket fence on which roses twined. Some larger and some nicer houses occupied the block, but none boasted better landscaping.

Sasuke opened a side gate in the picket fence and crossed the lawn to the front steps.

The porch was deep and cool. White wicker chairs with green cushions stood beside small wicker tables with glass tops.

On Sunday afternoons, he and Sakura often sat here, her chattering aimlessly, he reading the newspaper, both watching hummingbirds flit from one crimson bloom to another in the trumpet vines that flourished on the porch posts.

Sometimes, they unfolded a card table between the wicker chairs. She crushed him at Scrabble. He dominated the trivia games.

They didn't spend much on entertainment. No skiing vacations, no weekends in Rome. They seldom went out to a movie. Being together on their front porch offered as much pleasure as being together in Paris.

They were saving money for things that mattered in life. They saved to allow her to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. They saved to enable him to do some advertising, get another garage somewhere and expand the business.

They were going to have children too. Maybe two, but three was ideal. Sometimes, even four didn't seem like too many. They didn't want the world nor did they want to change it. They just wanted their little corner of the world, and the chance to fill it with family, love and laughter.

After he had stepped inside the house, he closed the door and locked it behind him. The hallway was dark, but he could still see that everything was in place. There were no signs of a struggle.

The silence was deafening. If Sakura had been home, there would have been music.

Sasuke looked through a door on his left into the living room. Nothing was out of place there as well.

He continued to make his way to the dining room, straight ahead of him. Everything was neat and tidy there, so he made his way to door that connected the dining room and the kitchen that stood ajar. Someone had left the lights on.

Here, he found signs of a struggle. One of the barstools that stood under their breakfast-bar was overturned. Broken dishes littered the floor.

The cabinets were painted glossy white. Blood spattered a door and two drawer fronts.

For a moment, Sasuke closed his eyes and stopped breathing.

One their white refrigerator, a small bloody handprint that Sasuke knew could only belong to Sakura cried havoc as loud as any voice could have screamed. Blood spotted the terra-cotta tiles on the floor. It looked like an ocean.

The scene so terrified Sasuke that he wished he could let out the appropriate emotions to express his fear. But he wasn't raised like that, so he couldn't. He wanted to close his eyes, but he had the crazy idea that if he closed his eyes twice to this grim reality, he would go blind forever.

The phone rang.

* * *

"Hn."

"_It's me, Sasuke-kun. They're listening_."

"Sakura. What have they done to you?"

"_I'm all right_," she said, but she didn't sound it.

"I'm in the kitchen," he said.

"_I know_."

"The blood—"

"_Don't think about that now, Sasuke-kun_," she cut in. "_They said we only have one minute to talk, just one minute_."

Sasuke understood the implication behind her words: _One minute, and maybe never again._

He collapsed into the nearest chair. "Sakura, I'm so damn sorry."

"_It's not your fault, Sasuke-kun_."

"Who are these people, are they crazy or something?"

"_They're vicious creeps, but they're not insane. They're very professional. But, Sasuke-kun, I want you to make me a promise. If anything happens to me_—"

"Nothing's going to happen to you."

"_If anything happens to me_," she insisted, "_promise me that you'll keep it together_."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"_You'll keep it together Sasuke-kun, and move on with your life_."

"You are my life." He was starting to sound desperate now, something he had never done before.

"_Keep it together, Sasuke-kun, or I'm going to be_ way _pissed at you_."

"I'm going to get you back."

"_If_ _you don't keep it together, Uchiha_," Sakura warned, "_I'll haunt your ass. It'll be like that_ Poltergeist _movie, cubed_."

"Sakura."

"_I love you, Sasuke-kun. And I'm only sorry we didn't get married sooner_."

"Sakura."

"_We should have married each other when we were twelve_."

"Sakura."

She didn't reply.

"Sakura?"

The silence electrified him.

"Sakura? Sakura, do you hear me?"

"_I hear you, Sasuke_-kun," said the kidnapper he had spoken to previously in a mocking voice.

"You sonofabitch."

* * *

**A/N:**

Added SasuSaku interaction especially for fisah, who I was afraid might get an aneurysm from the lack of it XD

AND SO THE PLOT THICKENS.

I… couldn't NOT add Shino in this chapter. Although I almost pissed myself laughing imagining him with perm-ed hair. Oh, that Naruto.

… Yes, I know my sense of humour just… doesn't exist.

Um. Review please? They make meh happeh :D

_Lessthanthree._

**PS:** I USED THE WORD REDUNDANT SOMEWHERE THERE! HO YEAH. I just hope I've used it in the right context.


	4. Call 4: The Insurance

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** SasuSaku  
**Summary:** "So, we have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash." The caller's confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money. If he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he'll pay a lot more than two billion yen.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. The Husband © Dean Koontz.

_Courage is grace under pressure_  
– Ernest Hemmingway

* * *

**Call #4:** The Insurance  
_They'll just take one step into the kitchen and they'll know you killed her yourself_

"_I understand your anger_—"

"You stupid, fucking—"

"—_but I don't have much patience for it_."

Sasuke paused, thinking over the man's words.

"Listen," he snarled. "If you hurt her—"

"_I already _have_ hurt her_," the kidnapper sneered. "_And if you don't pull this off, I'll butcher the bitch like a side of beef_."

As he said that, Sasuke was suddenly aware of the position he was in.

They had his wife.

He had nothing but a bloody kitchen that only pointed an accusing finger at himself.

"Don't hurt her again. Don't," Sasuke said, trying not to sound desperate.

"_Chill, Uchiha. Just chill. Let me explain a few things_."

Sasuke absentmindedly brushed a broken dish aside to clear the breakfast bar. It was the only thing that was clear to him at the moment.

"_About the blood_," the kidnapper continued. "_I slapped her down when she tried to fight back _—_ you've got one tough wife there, I'll tell you that _—_ but I didn't cut her_."

"What?"

"_We just got a tourniquet and put it on her arm until a vein popped up, stuck a needle in it, and drew four vials of blood just like your doctor does when you get a physical. Hey, the missus is studying to become a doctor, right?_"

Sasuke leaned his forehead against his free hand, which was supported on the breakfast bar. He tried in vain to concentrate.

"_We smeared blood on her hands and made those prints_," explained the kidnapper. "_It's a stage setting, Uchiha. So it looks like she was murdered there_."

Sasuke blinked and sat up straight in his seat.

"Wait, _what?_"

"_Think of it as a little extra insurance. Just in case you chicken out and go to the police. No matter how much you clean up, you'll never remove all the bloodstains. They won't believe the kidnapping story. They'll just take one step into the kitchen and they'll know you killed her yourself_."

Sasuke stared at the bloody handprint on the refrigerator.

"I didn't tell them anything," he said.

"_I know, Uchiha_."

There was a pause.

"_There's a butcher knife missing from the rack in your kitchen_," the abductor pointed out.

Sasuke didn't even bother to confirm the claim.

"_We wrapped it with one of your T-shirts and a pair of your blue jeans. The clothes are stained with your wife's blood_."

They were professional, all right, just like Sakura had said.

"_The package is hidden somewhere on your property. You won't be able to find it, but police dogs wouldn't have a hard time doing so_."

"I get the picture," Sasuke finally said.

"_I know. You aren't stupid. That's why we picked you, after all_."

Sasuke didn't know whether he should have taken that as a compliment or not.

"_That's also why we bought ourselves so much insurance," the kidnapped continued. "You don't have any room for mistakes, Uchiha. One slip and your beloved wife dies. You're a mess right now. So just go relax. I'll call you at six o'clock_."

"You've got to be kidding me. That's," Sasuke checked the clock on the wall, "three hours from now."

"_You're still in your work clothes. Go change. Get out of the house. Don't stay there. It's filled with memories, and your head's already fucked up as it is_."

Sasuke closed his eyes.

"Hn. All right."

"_Oh, and one more thing. Listen to this…_"

Sasuke thought he was going to hear a scream of pain from Sakura again, to emphasise how powerless he was to protect her. He was relieved when instead, he heard two taped voices:

'_Okay. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?'  
__A pause.  
_'_No, Lieutenant.'  
_'_I see. Well, I gave you my business card.'  
_'_I have it.'  
_'_Call me if you remember anything you would like to say.'  
_'_Of course.'_

The first voice belonged to Lieutenant Hyuuga Neji. The second voice was his own.

The kidnapper said, "If you told him anything, Uchiha, you'd be a widower right now."

Suddenly, it hit Sasuke.

"Hyuuga's one of you."

"_Maybe he is. Maybe not. You should just assume everyone is one of us. That'll be safer for your family. Everybody is one of us_."

They had built a box around him. Now they were putting on the lid.

"_Uchi_—Sasuke" the kidnapper said, reverting to his given name to seem more assuring. "_I don't want to leave you on such a dark note. I want to put you at ease about something. I want you to know that we won't touch her_."

"You _hit _her, you bastard."

"_And I'll hit her again if she doesn't do as she's told_," snapped the kidnapper. Then, in a gentler tone, "_but we won't _touch_ her. We aren't rapists, Sasuke_."

"What makes you think I'll believe you?"

"_Obviously, there are a lot of things I won't tell you_—"

"You're killers, but not rapists?" Sasuke sneered.

"—_but everything I have told you up to this point has been true. You think back over everything that's happened, and you'll see that I've been truthful and that I've always kept my word_."

Sasuke wanted to kill him. Never before had he felt an urge to do serious violence to another human being — it was just a waste of effort and emotion for him — but he honestly wanted to _destroy_ this man and his friends that were holding Sakura captive.

He was clutching the phone so fiercely that his hand ached. He was not able to relax his grip.

"_You're tougher than you think, Sasuke. But in the interest of getting the best performance out of you, I want you to know we'll treat Sakura with respect. If you do everything we ask of you, then she'll come back to you alive… and untouched_."

Sakura was not weak. She would not easily be mentally broken by physical abuse. But rape was more than a violation of the body. Rape broke the mind, the heart, and the spirit.

Her captor might have raised the issue with the sincere intent of putting some of Sasuke's fears to rest. But the sonofabitch had also raised it as a warning.

"Why should I believe you?"

"_Because you have to. Otherwise, you might as well consider her dead right now_."

That was an inescapable truth.

The kidnapper terminated the call.

* * *

Standing on the back porch, Sasuke was deep in thought.

If they had hidden the bundle of clothes somewhere on his property, it would most likely be buried under one of the flower beds. If he found the clothes and the knife, and cleaned up the kitchen, he would be able to gain some control, however little it may be.

Sakura had said she knew he was in the kitchen. She could only have known if the kidnappers had known. They wouldn't view his actions the same way. They had staged his wife's murder to box him in, and they wouldn't want that box to be deconstructed.

To punish him, they would hurt Sakura.

_We won't touch her_, the kidnapper had said. But he had no compunctions about hitting her.

To dress the set of the staged homicide, they had drawn her blood painlessly, with a hypodermic syringe. They had not, however, sworn to spare her from a knife if need be.

At the garage, the dark windows and the sun-tinted windows mocked him. The porch furniture and the patio furniture, arranged with the expectation of the enjoyment of lazy summer evenings, mocked him.

The lush and sculpted landscaping, on which he and Sakura had spent so many hours, mocked him as well.

All the beauty born from their work now seemed to be superficial, and its superficiality made it all seem ugly.

He returned to the house and closed the back door. He didn't bother locking it.

After having a shower and changing, Sasuke found himself standing at Sakura's small vanity, where she sat daily on a tufted stool to brush her hair, apply her makeup and put on her earrings.

Sasuke had no idea what they expected of him, how he could possibly raise two billion yen to ransom his wife, but he made no attempt to imagine any other possible scenarios. A man on a high ledge is well advised not to spend too much time studying the long drop.

The doorbell rang.

* * *

"_Oi, Sasuke, you got any food?" Naruto asked, as his stomach growled for the twenty fourth time that afternoon._

_Sasuke looked up from his work briefly._

"_Yeah, it's in the kitchen."_

_The three of them heard the house's front door open and close, and one of the household servants greet, "Welcome home, Itachi-waka-danna."_

"_I'll get the food!" Sakura said enthusiastically, jumping off Sasuke's bed and running out the door before either Naruto or Sasuke could ask her what to get._

_Naruto leaned his chin on his fist._

"_You know," he mused, "Sakura-chan seems to be awfully active whenever she's in your house."_

_Sasuke grunted in reply._

"_But then again, I've noticed that," Naruto continued, looking at Sasuke with a puzzled expression on his face, "it only appears at intervals."_

"_Naruto…"_

"_Like whenever Itachi is in the house," Naruto finished, oblivious to the death glare Sasuke was giving him._

"_Naruto. Shut up."_

"_Wait a minute," a figurative light bulb appeared over Naruto's head, as he had a revelation, "I think I'm on to something! Damn, Sasuke, I think Sakura-chan has a crush on_ your brother — _Ow!"_

"_I thought I told you to shut up. Now give me back my book."_

_

* * *

_

The kidnapper said he would call at 6 o'clock, not come calling. Besides, the bedside clock said that it was only 5 o'clock.

Leaving the door unanswered was not an option. He needed to be responsive regardless of how Sakura's captors chose to contact him. And if the visitor had nothing to do with her abduction, Sasuke was nevertheless obliged to answer the door in order to maintain an air of normalcy.

His car in the driveway proved that he was home. A neighbour, getting no response to the bell, might circle to the back of the house to knock at the kitchen door. The six-pane window in that door would provide a clear view of the kitchen floor strewn with broken dishes, the bloody handprints on the cabinets and the refrigerator.

He should have drawn shut the blinds.

Sasuke left the bedroom, followed the hall, and crossed the living room before the visitor had time to ring the bell twice.

The front door had no windows.

He opened it and found Lieutenant Hyuuga Neji and Detective Nara Shikamaru on the porch.

* * *

**A/N:**

**NB: **_waka-danna_ means _'young master of the house'_, if I'm not mistaken. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So I think it's about time to include some flashback-like things to give more character-understanding in Sasuke and Sakura's relationship.

And Naruto isn't _that _dense. When it comes to knowing who his friends fancy.

When it comes to knowing who fancies _him_, however... -_cough_-HINATA-_cough_-

Um. The rape thing is half from a conversation I had with fisah, about how YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSE TO ENJOY IT.

_Lessthanthree._


	5. Call 5: The Unanswered Call

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** SasuSaku  
**Summary:** "So, we have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash." The caller's confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money. If he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he'll pay a lot more than two billion yen.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. The Husband © Dean Koontz.

_Courage is grace under pressure_  
– Ernest Hemmingway

* * *

**Call #5:** The Unanswered Call  
_I'd rather you didn't answer that_

"Nice house you got here," Detective Nara Shikamaru commented lazily. "I love old neighbourhoods like these."

Lieutenant Hyuuga Neji nodded in agreement.

Sasuke lips were parched. He licked them before asking, "Do you live around here, Detectives?"

"No," Neji said. "We were just driving around and happened to be in the neighbourhood."

Sasuke surveyed the two men before him. Shikamaru was a man who would feel it much too bothersome to stop by someone's place even if he was 'in the neighbourhood'. As for the Lieutenant? Neji wasn't a man who _just happened_ to be anywhere. If he ever went sleepwalking, even then he would have a purpose, a plan and a destination.

"Something's come up, Uchiha-san," said Shikamaru, his expression suddenly serious. "And since we were nearby, it seemed as easy to stop in as it was to call. Can you spare us a few minutes?"

If Neji — _and Shikamaru by proxy_, Sasuke reasoned — was not one of the kidnappers, if his conversation with Sasuke was taped without his knowledge or consent, then allowing him into his threshold would be reckless. In his small house, the living room and the kitchen were only a few steps apart.

Sasuke knew there was a flaw in the kidnappers' 'insurance'. For one thing, when the crime scene was thoroughly inspected, detectives down at the CSI laboratories would determine the clotting time. Since Sasuke was being questioned by the police when the 'murder' was committed and then chauffeuring Naruto back to his apartment straight after, he had his alibi.

But what if they spilled the blood just before he came home? They knew he was in the kitchen. This meant that there were probably cameras all over his house, and that someone was tailing him at all times. Sasuke remembered the black Cadillac SUV. They were fast, professional and efficient. One of them could have easily followed him and called his friends when Sasuke was nearing his house, giving the signal to set up the crime scene.

Even if they didn't, the evidence was damning, and would have Sasuke detained and questioned for at least a day. Of course the detectives would doubt his story if he told them. No matter what those TV programs said, you were guilty until proven innocent in the real world. And it would take hours, maybe even days, for the results of the blood clotting time to come back to prove Sasuke's innocence, time which Sasuke didn't have.

"Of course," Sasuke replied quickly. "But my wife came home with a migraine. She's lying down."

If the detectives were also the kidnappers, if they knew that Sakura was being held hostage elsewhere, they didn't betray their knowledge by any change in their expressions.

Sakura had said they were professionals.

"Why don't we sit out here on the porch?" Sasuke offered.

Sasuke pulled the door shut behind him and the three of them settled into the white wicker chairs.

Shikamaru clasped his hands behind his head and rested against them.

"I had a porch like this when I was a kid," he said nonchalantly. "I used to just sit there watching the clouds go by. If there were no clouds, I'd just watch the traffic."

Sasuke didn't trust himself to say anything. He eyed Shikamaru warily. Behind the laid-back attitude was a genius, Sasuke knew. He couldn't be in his profession if it were otherwise.

Neji had brought a nine-by-twelve white envelope along with him. He placed it in his lap, unopened, once he had sat down.

"Does your wife use ergotamine?" he asked.

"Use what?"

"Ergotamine. For the migraines," Shikamaru elaborated.

Sasuke had no idea whether ergotamine was an actual medication or whether the detectives had simply invented it as they were walking up to his house.

"No. She toughs it out on aspirin."

"How often does she get one?"

"Two or three times a year," Sasuke lied. Sakura had never had a migraine since he had met her when they were twelve. She rarely suffered headaches of any kind.

"I have ocular migraines," Neji said. "They're entirely visual though. I get the glimmering light and the temporary blind spot for about twenty minutes, but there's no pain."

"I've always told him; if you have to have a migraine, that's the type to have. They're not as bothersome as the others," Shikamaru added.

"The doctors will only prescribe ergotamine if you have them at least once a month."

"Well, Sakura only has hers two or three times a year," Sasuke repeated. It was just rotten luck that these detectives knew so much about migraines.

"Hey, Uchiha-san. What does your wife do?" Shikamaru asked.

"She's a receptionist in St. Minato's. But that's only her day job. She's studying to become a doctor."

"That's handy," Neji commented.

Shikamaru agreed.

Their small talk unnerved Sasuke, and he was very aware that his shoulders were tense and his posture stiff. He tried to relax them to no avail.

Of course, the two detectives had no doubt long grown accustomed to people being wary and tense with them, even innocent people, even their mothers.

"There was a dog nearby," Shikamaru said after a long pause.

Sasuke had been avoiding both detectives' eyes, but at that information, he looked up.

"I do remember seeing a dog run past, and the man chasing after it," Sasuke recalled.

"Yes," Neji said. "It was alone. There was a collar and a leash, but no owners. We had the CSIs immediately see whether the DNA on the leash was a match to the victim's. It was."

"The dog also had a microchip on it," Shikamaru continued. "They inject it between the muscles in the dog's shoulder. It's very tiny. The animal doesn't feel it. We scanned the dog's chip, and it lives a few blocks away from where it was found. Owner's name is Inuzuka."

Sasuke blinked.

"Inuzuka? As in, Inuzuka Kiba?"

"You know him?"

"He's an acquaintance of mine. He wasn't the guy that was shot, was he?"

"No, he wasn't."

"So, who was he? A family member or a friend?"

Avoiding the question, Neji asked, "If you saw the dog, Uchiha-san, I'm surprised you didn't recognise it."

"Akamaru," Sasuke remembered.

"That's the dog's name," Shikamaru confirmed.

"It didn't occur to me at the time," Sasuke said. "I mean, I thought they looked alike, sure, but since Kiba takes that thing around with him everywhere, I never would have thought that dog would be Akamaru."

"Apparently, the dog was stolen from the Inuzukas' back garden, probably around eleven-thirty. The leash and the collar around Akamaru don't belong to the Inuzukas," Neji explained.

"You mean the dog was stolen by the guy that was shot?"

This revelation has reversed Sasuke's problem with eye contact. Now he couldn't look away from the detectives.

Lieutenant Hyuuga Neji and Detective Nara Shikamaru hadn't stopped by his house just to share this puzzling piece of information. Apparently this development triggered, in the detectives' minds, a question about something Sasuke had said earlier — or had failed to say.

From inside the house came the muffled ringing of the telephone.

The kidnappers weren't supposed to call until six o'clock. But if they called earlier and couldn't reach Sasuke, they would be angry.

As Sasuke made to get out of his seat, Neji said, "I'd rather you didn't answer that. It's probably Uzumaki-san."

"Naruto?"

"We spoke to him half an hour ago," Shikamaru explained, closing his eyes. "We asked him not to call you until we had a chance to speak to you. He's probably been wrestling with his conscience ever since, and finally his conscience won. Or lost, depending on your point of view."

Remaining in his chair, Sasuke said, "What's this all about?"

Ignoring his question yet again, Neji asked, "How often do you think dogs are stolen, Uchiha-san?"

"I've never dwelled on the thought before."

"It happens," Neji continued. "Purebred dogs can be worth hundreds of thousands of yen. And as often as not, the thief doesn't intend to sell the animal. He just wants a fancy dog for himself without having to pay for it."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"But Akamaru wasn't a purebred dog," he said. "He was a mongrel."

"That's why it makes no sense," Shikamaru said, having appeared to have woken up from his short nap. "Also, dogs are mostly stolen from cars. People leave the dog alone and the car unlocked. When they come back, Shintaro's gone and someone's renamed him Pakkun."

Sasuke let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding and tried to appear more relaxed.

"Or the owners tie them to a parking meter outside a shop. One slip of the knot and the thief walks away with a new best friend."

Shikamaru paused, and looked out at the sky. It was a cloudless day. He sighed.

"It's very rare, Uchiha-san," Shikamaru said, "for a dog to be stolen out of an owner's backyard on a bright sunny morning. You'd have to have executed that theft perfectly so the owner wouldn't realise what you had done. But why would someone go to all that effort for a dog of mixed ancestry? You wouldn't get a lot of money for a mongrel. Its outright weirdness just _bothers_ me."

Sasuke raised one hand to the back of his neck and massaged the muscles there because that seemed like something a relaxed man — a relaxed, _unconcerned_ man — might do.

"It's strange for a thief to enter a neighbourhood like that on foot and walk away with a stolen pet. It's strange that no form of identity was found on him when the body was examined. It's more than strange that he gets shot to death three blocks later. And it's just weird — in fact, it's _remarkable_ — Uchiha-san, that you, the primary witness, knew him."

Sasuke eyes widened a fraction.

"But I didn't know him," Sasuke said.

"But at one time," Shikamaru insisted, "you knew him quite well."

* * *

**A/N:**

OH DEAR, WHAT EVER WILL SASU-CHAN DOOOO? _-slaps hands to cheeks-_

And the whole few paragraphs about the blood-clot-whatever are there because of **Miko-chan**, who this chapter is dedicated to because of her brilliance. She raised that point in the previous chapter, and after reading her reasonings, I just stared at the screen for a good few minutes before laughing out loud for another good few minutes, because I was just _stomped_. And I didn't know how to get around that at the time and I'm astounded at her intelligence and ability to think this up, because my brain never functions that hard. Especially when writing fics.

So yes, many thanks to her for pointing out that inconsistency. And I'm so sorry that I couldn't find a more intelligent way to get around that besides the_ I'm late for a very important date!_ cliche. But seriously, it took more than a week for me to think about this, and the perfectionist in me would not continue the story until I smoothed out that particular crease. That, and it was the best I could think of.

I'm trying to imagine Neji and Shikamaru sharing an office. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

... SHINO!

_Lessthanthree._


	6. Call 6: The Message

**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** SasuSaku  
**Summary:** "So, we have your wife. You get her back for two billion yen. Cash." The caller's confident Sasuke will find a way to get the money. If he loves his wife enough. Sasuke does. He has sixty hours to prove it, and he'll pay a lot more than two billion yen.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. The Husband © Dean Koontz.

_Courage is grace under pressure_  
– Ernest Hemmingway

* * *

**Call #6: The Message  
**_Sorry, teme, but that Hyuuga is batshit insane. He's like a fully macking triple overhead corduroy to the horizon._

"One of the uniformed officers on scene eventually got a closer look at the body and recognised it," Neji said.

Sasuke didn't reply.

"He said he arrested the guy on a drug-possession after stopping him for a traffic violation about three years ago," Shikamaru continued. "Uzumaki-san says that both of you went to high school with him."

"Who was he?"

"Abumi Zaku. Does the name ring a bell?" Neji asked.

It did.

"I didn't just go to school with him," Sasuke said. "After high school, I lived with my folks for a year before moving out. I couldn't afford my own apartment, so we split the rent. That wasn't Zaku dead on the sidewalk."

"I'm afraid it was," Shikamaru confirmed.

Neji opened the white envelope he had brought with him and withdrew an eight-by-ten colour photo from it and handed it to Sasuke.

"In addition to the identification by an officer and a print match, I have Uzumaki-san's positive ID based on this."

Sasuke looked at the photograph. Zaku's head was turned to the left to conceal the worst of his wounds. His features had been subtly deformed by the temple entrance, transit, and post-temple exit of the high-velocity shot. His right eye was open wide in a startled stare.

"It could be Zaku," Sasuke said.

"It is."

"At the scene, I only saw one side of his face; the right side, with the exit wound."

"And you probably didn't look too close," Neji finished.

"No. I didn't want to look too close."

Sasuke couldn't take his eyes off the photo. He sensed that it was prophetic. One day, there would be a photograph like this of his face. They would show it to his parents.

_Is this your son, Uchiha-san-tachii?_

"I haven't seen Zaku in almost nine years."

"You roomed with him when you were what, eighteen?"

"Eighteen, nineteen. I only stayed with him for a year."

"Why didn't you ever stay in touch?" Shikamaru asked.

While Sasuke had been riveted by the photograph and Shikamaru had thrown him casual questions, Neji had been watching him intently. The lieutenant's stare had the sharp promise of a nail-gun.

"We had… different ideas about things," Sasuke said.

"It's not like you two were married," Shikamaru said. "You were just roommates. You didn't have to want the same things."

"We _did_ want some of the same things, but we just had different ideas about how we got them," Sasuke clarified.

"Abumi wanted to get everything the easy way," Shikamaru guessed.

"I knew he was going to get into trouble sooner or later, and I didn't want any part of it."

"Well, we haven't learnt much about him yet, but we know he was renting a house in Otogakure for seven hundred thousand yen a month."

"A _month_?"

"Nice house it was. But so far, it looks like he didn't have a job."

"Zaku didn't believe in jobs. He thought work was strictly for Daylighters." Seeing Neji and Shikamaru's blank looks, Sasuke explained, "It's lingo for people who don't spend their every waking moment in nightclubs. For those who don't live for the raves."

"Was there a time when _you_ lived for 'the raves', Uchiha-san?" Shikamaru asked.

"Towards the end of high school and for a while after. But it wasn't enough."

"What was lacking?"

"The satisfaction of work. Stability. Family."

"You've got all that now. Life is perfect, eh?"

"It's good."

"But not perfect? What's it lacking?" Shikamaru asked.

Sasuke didn't know. He'd thought about that from time to time, but he had no answer. So he settled on, "Nothing. We'd like to have kids. Maybe that's all."

"I have two kids," Shikamaru said. "One boy and one girl. The boy's nine. The girl's twelve and exactly like her mother — this isn't a good thing, by the way. Kids change your life."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Sasuke realised that he was responding to the detectives less guardedly than he had previously. He reminded himself that he was no match for the two geniuses in front of him.

"Aside from the drug-possession charge," Neji said, going back on topic, "Abumi stayed clean all these years. But you do recognise him now, right?"

"Yes," Sasuke confirmed.

"You didn't recognise him as he was walking across the street?" Neji asked.

"I wasn't really paying attention to him."

"And he was on the phone, distracted," Shikamaru told Neji. "Uzumaki-san said he was on the phone when the shot was fired."

"That's right," Sasuke agreed.

Neji paused and observed Sasuke for a few seconds before saying, "You know, Uzumaki-san strikes me as being incapable of guile. If he lies, I expect his nose might light up."

Sasuke wasn't sure if he meant to infer that he himself, by contrast to Naruto, was enigmatic and unreliable or not, so he kept quiet.

"Who were you on the phone with?"

"Sakura. My wife."

"Calling to let you know she had a migraine?"

Sasuke nodded.

Glancing at the house behind them, Neji said, "I hope she's feeling better."

"So the guy who's shot turns out to be your old roommate," said Shikamaru, after a pause. "Now do you see why that's so weird to us?"

"It is weird," Sasuke agreed. "It freaks me out a little."

"Well, sometimes coincidences are just coincidences." Neji rose from his chair and moved towards the porch steps, Shikamaru getting up and following him.

Relieved, Sasuke got up from his chair too.

Pausing beside the steps, Neji asked, "Are you sure there's nothing else we need to know?"

_If you told him anything, Uchiha, you'd be a widower right now._

Sasuke shook his head.

"I'm sure," he said.

"We're not your enemies, Uchiha-san," Shikamaru said.

"I never thought you were," Sasuke lied.

"Everyone thinks we are."

"I'd like to think I don't have any enemies."

"Everyone has enemies," Neji said. "Even a saint has enemies."

"Why would a saint have enemies?"

"Sometimes, the wicked hate the good just because they _are_ good," Shikamaru said, before turning away and walking towards the front gate.

* * *

The answer machine stood on a corner desk. The only message was from Naruto:

"_Sorry, teme. I should've called as soon as he left here. But that Lieutenant Hyuuga is batshit insane, man. He's like a fully macking triple overhead corduroy to the horizon, yo. He scares you off ramen and makes you want to sit quiet in a club and just watch all the hot chicks go by doing nothing. It's like a silent horror flick."_

Sasuke deleted the message and sat down on his sofa. He didn't even bother checking bank account, mortgage statements; he knew he didn't have anywhere near enough the amount the kidnappers asked for.

Until now, Sasuke had not thought of himself as a failure. His self-image had been that of a young man responsibly trying to build a life for himself and his wife.

He was only twenty seven. No one could be a failure at twenty seven.

Bitterness overcame him for which he had no target except himself. This was not good. Bitterness could turn into self-pity, and if he surrendered to that, he would _make_ a failure of himself. And Sakura would die.

Even if the house had been without a mortgage, even if they had half a billion yen in cash and were wildly successful for people their age, he would not have had the funds to ransom her.

That truth brought him to the realisation that money would not be what saved Sakura. _He_ would be what saved her if she could be saved; his perseverance, his wits, his courage and his love.

* * *

Sasuke stared at the low ceiling, which was the floor of the loft that overhung two-thirds of the garage. Windows in the higher space faced the house, providing an excellent vantage point.

Someone had known when Sasuke had come home earlier, had known precisely when he had entered the kitchen. The phone had rung, with Sakura on the line, moments after he had found the broken dishes and the blood.

If an observer knew where Sakura could be found, it would nevertheless be reckless for Sasuke to go after him. These people clearly had much experience of violence and they were ruthless. A mechanic wouldn't be a match for any of them.

A board creaked overhead.

On the wall opposite was a rack that held tools. Sasuke chose a combination lug wrench and pry bar.

* * *

Sasuke was aware that a kind of madness, bred of desperation, had come over him. With the long-handled lug wrench clutched in his right hand, he moved to the back of the garage where steep open stairs in the north corner led in a single straight flight to the loft.

Why Abumi Zaku had stolen Kiba's dog and why he, of all people, had been shot dead as an example to Sasuke were mysteries to which no solutions were at hand. Intuition told him, however, that the kidnappers had known Sasuke would be linked with him and that this link would make the police suspicious of him. They were weaving a web of circumstantial evidence that, were they to kill Sakura, would force Sasuke to trial for her murder and would elicit the death penalty from any jury.

Raising the lug wrench higher, Sasuke eased along towards the front of the loft. He found that the entire length of the passage was deserted.

One the floor, however, against the end of a row of boxes, stood some equipment that should not have been there. It included a receiver and a recorder, but he couldn't identify the other three items. They were plugged into a board of expansion receptacle, which was itself plugged into a nearby wall outlet. Indicator lights and LED readouts revealed the equipment to be engaged.

They had been maintaining surveillance of the house. The rooms and phones were probably bugged.

Having seen no one in the loft, Sasuke assumed that the equipment was not being monitored. Perhaps they could even access it and download it from a distance.

Simultaneously with that thought, the array of indicator lights changed patterns, and at least one of the LED displays began to keep a running count. He then heard Detective Nara Shikamaru's voice.

"_Nice house you got here. I love old neighbourhoods like these."_

Not just the rooms of the house, but the front porch, too, had been bugged. They were professional, all right, and Sasuke knew that he had been outmaneuvered only an instant before he felt the muzzle of a handgun against the back of his neck.

* * *

**A/N:**

For once, I have basically nothing to say D:

SHINO.


End file.
